Joe, you must have been skipping through the thread. Listen to that "Cry Me A River" then tell us she's a flash in the pan. I know you didn't say that, but I think you'll realize this isn't just sentimentalism. It's a well-told fairy story.

Alice, thanks again for the link. I tried to find that conversation at CBS earlier and I couldn't tease it out of the web site.

Spaw and Joe, there have been discussions here on Mudcat that I have been part of that, if she joined in, I no doubt appreciated and discussed in depth things with Diane. I love some of the pointed and technically engaged conversations--I remember one where we started talking about Robin Hood and got into the lore of oak trees and all sorts of cultural markers associated with both. We were wading into academic material in depth. I don't know if she was there, but I think she'd shine on that. I resented the silly stuff that people injected because they knew how to use Google but didn't have a clue as to how to evaluate the information they found. We stumbled over those entries and either dismissed them or ignored them. I understand perfectly well the position of scholarly prowess when the occasion arises.

There is a lot of cultural literacy that can come into this discussion of this performance by Susan Boyle. I've seen some pretty silly remarks on the YouTube threads--lots of people want to say something, just because they're so happy to see this little drama unfold. It's like a wonderful short story, in which we reach a denouement in under 7 minutes. The Culture understands 1) television programs 2) Simon Cowell and 3) the underdog. There will be more out of this, but right now, a lot of people can appreciate this performance on a lot of levels.

How about wrapping this up with a little theory: Jean-François Lyotard wrote a great essay called The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. In it, one important point he makes is about how all cultures "privilege" storytellers. Part of the problem in this thread is that the "storyteller" is not one individual, the storyteller is the television program with all of it's flaws. I think that DESPITE the "flaws" of the corporate storyteller, Susan Boyle managed to take control of the story and it had a happy ending.

Climbs down off of the stack of philosophy texts . . .

SRS